"Last week, while passing through the Honolulu Art Museum on my way back to Hawaii, I realized it was the place where Luigi and I first met. The feeling of being suddenly pulled back to memories by a single location was so real and deeply moving. It reminded me of this tragic person and event. I found photos on my phone of him being forced to be my Instagram boyfriend, taking pictures for me because the other alumni traveling with me were too old to edit them."
The picture Luigi helped take.
"Luigi was my classmate and fellow alumnus at Penn. We met in February 2023, traveled together, and organized and participated in several Penn alumni events in Hawaii. On the day of the incident, I saw the news and felt a surge of grief. We had planned to hang out after I returned from Japan. The next day, I couldn't help but send him a message of condolence, but he never replied."
Messages between OP and Luigi.
"Many friends asked me if I thought he had done anything wrong. I can only say no comments. I hope he's doing well. Take care"
ty to @lmangione and their anon for notifying the community of this existing.
Guys I’m so sorry!!! I got so swept up in work and personal life shit but here is my post on some expert opinion thoughts. Anon I see you and I apologize! Stay with me here…
Experts are a particularly complex or just picky area of law. Typically, each side will present expert testimony (which is EXTREMELY expensive, btw… if you wanna make bank just become a testifying expert in something). But usually each side is able to present an expert of their choosing (which are paid by their client and whom they can usually privately confer with AKA coach lol) who will testify to issues that are outside of the areas of expertise for lawyers. Experts must pass the Daubert or Frye standards. The standard in most states is the newer Daubert test, but New York uses the Frye standard, requiring that the expert’s method of evaluating or testing their conclusion is of “general acceptance” in their scientific/professional community. It’s a lower standard than Daubert.
Here are how experts will be interesting in Luigi’s case and the different experts that may come up:
Psychological experts: if defense tries to take the insanity route (which is still possible; I’m not saying he is or isn’t mentally unwell - I’m just saying it’s a strategical option), each side will present an expert to testify to his sanity. There are several different insanity standards that I won’t delve into, but NY state uses the M’Naughten rule, requiring that the defendant was so mentally unwell that they could not appreciate (1) the nature and consequence of their conduct, OR (2) that such conduct was wrong. The prosecution’s side for the NY state case will need to prove that Luigi was aware that his conduct was wrong/had consequences (likely including his journal writings) while the defense’s side will need to prove that he did not understand the nature of the consequence or that the conduct was wrong. It will come down to his state of mind at the time of the shooting. As long as the psychological evaluation method is “generally accepted”, the judge will allow the expert testimony. This would be an interesting battle, if it comes up. (Note: using the insanity defense requires that the defense admits that Luigi did the shooting - I have no idea if they’ll go there, but it’s still an option)
Ballistics: THIS IS THE INTERESTING ONE TO ME!! So ghost guns or privately made firearms (PMF) are very very new as to legal regulation. We only just started getting federal legal precedent as to how to regulate the legal standards around manufacturing PMFs, and we are far away from standards regarding testimony around them. PMFs are made to be intracable, or “ghost”! Expert testimony around ghost gun ballistics is an area of law that pretty much doesn’t exist. The defense is going to heavily scrutinize any expert testimony regarding ballistics matching because the standards just can’t be met at this time as to being “generally accepted” in the profession. NY specifically has laws that allow expert testimony regarding digital files used to make ghost guns, but nothing regarding the actual ballistics match. Almost every single significant ghost gun case to date has ended in settlement, so I anticipate a huge fight here regarding matching ballistics.
3D printing/manufacturing experts: I could see there being experts in this field regarding how the gun was made or that it was made by Luigi. However, this might be a fact that the defense can stipulate or save an expert on. I think it’s possible that it’ll come up!
Crime scene/survailance experts: because Luigi doesn’t shoot BT and then wave at the camera and say “hi I’m luigi”, it’ll probably be argued that the man in the footage isn’t him or can’t be proven beyond a reasonable doubt to be him. These types of experts will basically evaluate the CCTV footage or crime scene evidence and testify as to the likelihood that the person who did the shooting could be the defendant (or could not be). The defense will likely present an expert that casts doubt on this to persuade the jury on their certainty. This could be huge for the prosecution not meeting the standard for conviction if the ballistics are also thrown out.
Like I said, it’s a very convoluted and messy area of law (and a very expensive testimony for each expert..) but it will be very interesting to see how it unravels in Luigi’s case. Let me know your thoughts/findings!
Interesting political/legal news that made me think of Luigi’s case..
So Donald Trump frivolously sued the IRS for $10b for leaking a single one of his tax returns from 2019. He settled with the IRS to drop the claim in exchange for a formal apology from the IRS and an agreement that the IRS will set up a $1.8b “anti-weaponization” fund for people to apply to get monetary compensation for being victims of lawfare, which is essentially the weaponization of the legal system. So, this is a settlement that Trump reached with the Deparment of Justice, which he controls. Legal experts are heavily critiquing the merits of the original claim as well as the legitimacy of this settlement agreement and fund set up. It is probably one of the biggest lawsuit scams that we’ll ever see.
The way that this will functionally work is that people can apply to be compensated for having been “victimized” by the legal system and they can be awarded formal apologies or monetary compensation. The deputy attorney general came out and said, “The use of government power to target individuals or entities for improper and unlawful political, personal, or ideological reasons should not be tolerated by any Administration,” When describing who may be awarded this relief, Donald Trump mentioned many of his allies who were arrested for election tampering as well as January 6th arrestees. Meanwhile, as we all know, the legal system disproportionately targets the poor, minorities, and the politically misaligned. We’ve been seeing it in Luigi’s case at the hand of the Trump administration since day 1.
Essentially, this will function as a way for Trump’s allies (and possibly his family) to be awarded money from the government that Donald Trump himself sued for because they were doing something ILLEGAL. It’s a gross misappropriation of public funds and it is going directly back into the administrations pockets. Meanwhile, nothing has been done under this administration to afford relief to those being truly bullied and abused by the system. What a fucking clown show.
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